The Worthy Physician

Philanthropy and Care: Exploring Dr. Sweet's Mission and The Sweet Emergency Fund

• Dr. Sapna Shah-Haque MD

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Dr. Sweet shares her 43-year journey in HIV/AIDS care, transforming a deadly condition with six-month prognosis into a manageable chronic disease where properly treated patients can expect normal lifespans.

• Started practicing in 1982, drawn to medicine by hands-on patient interaction rather than purely diagnostic work
• Encountered her first HIV patient in 1983 when stigma and discrimination were severe
• Founded the Sweet Emergency Fund approximately 30 years ago to address gaps in care
• Hosts annual "Sweet Affair" fundraiser in her backyard to support medication, housing, and transportation needs
• Advocates for healthcare as a right, not a privilege, ensuring patients receive care regardless of ability to pay
• Teaches medical students the human side of medicine—listening, understanding quality of life, and addressing social determinants of health
• Emphasizes that early HIV treatment prevents hospitalizations and costly complications
• Modern HIV patients on proper treatment can expect normal life expectancies (82-88 years)

To donate to the Sweet Emergency Fund's community-focused support for HIV patients, send a tax-deductible contribution to this 501(c)(3) organization that ensures 100% of funds go directly to patient care needs.

This episode is part of the Podcasthon.  What does that mean?

This week, in March, several podcasters around the world are asked to release an episode regarding philanthropy.  What a cool way to create a positive impact?!

Why does it matter? 

We can all strive to leave the world a little better than the way we found it. 

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Dr. Sweet:

Welcome to another episode of the Worthy Physician. I'm your host, dr Sapna Shah-Hawk, reigniting your humanity and passion for medicine. With each episode, we bring you inspiring stories, actionable insight and expert advice. Get ready for another engaging conversation that could change the way you think and live as a physician. Your income is your greatest asset, protected with Pattern Life. The easy, stress-free way to find the right disability insurance, with unbiased comparisons and no jargon. Pattern helps you to choose the best policy for your needs. Secure your future today at Pattern Life. The link is in the show notes. Let's dive in.

Dr. Sweet:

What took you into medicine. You've been practicing for as long as you have. What keeps you engaged, and then jump right into your philanthropic work, because it's tightly connected to how and where you practice. I went into medicine to help people, not to make money. I believe health care is a right, not something that people should have to pay for exorbitantly, should have to pay for exorbitantly. And yet, even when I started 43 years ago, there was always the issue of getting things paid for. That's what led me into advocacy was trying to make sure that the patients that needed care got care even though they didn't have money, which is where Ryan White Care Act and the philanthropy, the Sweet Emergency Fund and the things that I've done came from Because to give good care you have to have the tools that are available, which in this day and age for AIDS is medication and they're terribly expensive. And in all the professions that helps humanity. Why medicine? It's hands-on. You get to talk to people, you get to learn to know people and their families and what's going on. When I first started residency training medical school training and then residency I was tempted by pathology a couple of times because it seemed fascinating to look at the body and to figure out what happened. But then I realized that you didn't ever really get to talk to patients if you were a pathologist. So that's when I went from pathology to internal medicine, because with internal medicine you do have lots of diseases and lots of things you can do to help people. It's a very hands-on, interactive type of care, which is what I love. I love getting to know my patients and being able to help them and keep them going and whatever what it is that they need to have done. But I picked a good time to start medicine with what I enjoyed, because microbiology and immunology were always things I loved and I had a master's in immunology Went in 81 to HIV.

Dr. Sweet:

We didn't know it was HIV, but it was called AIDS, hit the young population in San Francisco and New York and it was just fascinating scholarly activity trying to keep up with new viruses, retroviruses, new diseases, hiv and AIDS. And when I finally get here in 83, there was no one else that really wanted to tackle it and there was such a stigma and such poor treatment of people with HIV and AIDS. Back in the day it was easy to get involved in terms of advocacy because they needed care and they were getting treated terribly. That's what led me down the path of AIDS care. It was immunologically fascinating and yet socially, economically, it was something that needed a lot of attention and care. You fell into it. But you also had your intellectual curiosity and then you also got to be impactful with people.

Dr. Sweet:

True, I saw my first HIV patient in 83. He was somebody who was very visible. He had Kaposi's sarcoma, so he had a black spot on the scan in his face. And in 1983 in Wichita, kansas, he was treated very shabbily. People wouldn't be in the same church with him. They didn't want him at any sort of social gathering. He was truly a leper and it led us both to trying to get people to understand it was a condition, not a sin, to have this.

Dr. Sweet:

But yet there was a lot of just negativity surrounding anybody who had HIV. And part of it was lifestyle, because it was an MSM men who have sex with men predominantly which is a little more acceptable now than it was in 1983. But in 83, there was a lot of hiding and shame and fear of being found out, not only of your HIV status but your sexual orientation. So he drug me along in terms of advocacy, trying to make sure people understood what it was and what it wasn't, and I knew from the very beginning that it couldn't possibly be something spread by telephones or doorknobs. The whole world would be down with it. Rather, it was clearly sexually and blood-borne After not too long. That was what was known Then.

Dr. Sweet:

It was just a real difficult situation to convince people they could stop acting so negative about the person who had this and try and work on treating and making life better as much as we could. That's hard to believe. That learned just a little over 40 years ago. Yeah, 40 years. I went into practice in 1982. I've had the same job. Now, in 2025. I think that's 43 years. I've been an employee of KU and you're a big reason why I chose internal medicine myself because your work and the way you would teach, the way that you would approach patients that makes me feel good, because that's exactly why I've stayed in a teaching situation. I think people need to understand medicine is an art as well as a science, and the art is keeping people feeling that they're being cared for, that they're being listened to, that they're being respected and taken care of in the best way possible. But you don't just practice medicine and you don't just engage patients and medical students of residence.

Dr. Sweet:

Tell us more about the suite emergency. When did that become established? About 30 years ago. We at that time had a house that we would place patients who were sick, didn't need to be in the hospital but had no family, had been abandoned or were never a part of a family unit abandoned or were never a part of a family unit and we were having trouble paying the help and paying the utilities and making sure that house was still viable. So somebody said we need to have a fundraiser and that's what happened. They did the suite affair in the backyard. You've been here. I think it was. We raised a few thousand dollars, but enough to help with payroll at the house and keep it open a little bit longer than it would have otherwise. But out of the suite affair grew the suite emergency fund, which is for 501c3, where anything that we do raise or any memorial or any donation goes into a box that is used to take care of needs that people have that insurance and personal savings and others didn't have to care for them. So the Sweet Emergency Fund is still there today, with philanthropy being very necessary, trying to make sure that the patients who need transportation have transportation. We have a housing director. We try to make sure people aren't on the street homeless with the medical conditions like this. That was the inception of the Sweet Affair and Sweet Emergency Fund and they're both still very active and important to our patients.

Dr. Sweet:

Every September you turn your backyard into this magical place where it's full of love and it's mission driven. Yes, it's accepting all comers. We have MSM, we have people, older people, who maybe never have met some of the patients that I take care of or like I take care of. But it's a way of sharing, it's a way of showing community that everybody in that community deserves love and respect and care and that's what we try and do. But it's a lot of fun. Put up a circus tent and turn the sparkly lights on and put some music on and people do. Well, they do, and that's a very accurate description. It's something we look forward to every year.

Dr. Sweet:

Can't make it as often as I would like to, but I see the good that it has done, not only when I was a student or a resident, but even I've seen how it has positively affected your patients and it takes that financial burden off of them Because without that they wouldn't be able to afford the medications, just like you said. But I'm reinforcing that with testimonial that it's an amazing thing that you've done. It took me and a lot of people. It is all about the village. It's not just one person. We've had tremendous employees over the years and people who helped fulfill the mission.

Dr. Sweet:

I've always said, and I continue to say, if you're smart enough to get tested and know you're HIV infected, if you end up in my clinic, you will get care. It's not a matter of paying for it. We'll figure out how to do that, but increasingly difficult, but still the mission we go by is to make sure everyone gets basic antiretroviral therapy and follow-up so that they don't. You don't have to die prematurely with HIV infection anymore. If you're a young person and you're diagnosed when your CD4 count is still above 500, which is a pretty good immune system you will live just as long as an age-matched control, somebody that has the same conditions and age and that for men in this day and age is somewhere between 82 and 88. It's important that people get the right care at the right time, which is early in the disease state. It ultimately saves a lot of community because they don't end up in the hospital and sick like we used to see people come in with pneumonia and histoplasmosis and all kinds of terrible diseases. Now we can prevent that if we just give them one pill once a day and keep their immune system functioning. That's amazing. Now, in 83, the average lifespan of somebody who was diagnosed with AIDS was six months. Now it's a disease that they aged and we're having to shift a lot of what we do into care for conditions that occur because of maturity. People with HIV are living into their 60s, 70s and even 80s. But it's because of good medicines and you have to be able to make sure those medicines are sustainably there for them at all times.

Dr. Sweet:

What keeps you engaged with medical students Keeps me looking things up, because they all probably know more than I do or ever did. But I can sometimes help more with the behavioral, social aspects of what we do how to listen to people, when to pivot, when to stop worrying about one thing and worry about something else. But what clinical medicine is more than sitting in front of a computer typing a note, which is pivot, when to stop worrying about one thing and worry about something else? But what clinical medicine is more than sitting in front of a computer typing a note, which is unfortunately a lot of the time med students and residents spend now, as I've said, they can all learn facts from up to date and textbooks and the web and all the things that we have available, but seeing somebody practice medicine and interact with patients is what I can offer. I'm not perfect, but I love what I do and the patients love that. I love what I do and that makes a big difference and I think showing that to students and residents is a way for them to be OK with understanding their patients and being a little more advocacy oriented than sometimes. I can agree more, to be honest.

Dr. Sweet:

It's hard, I think, during training, to remember that, though, and so I really love what you do and I remember you approaching things very systematically and very humanistic when I was in residency. Even now, this never changed with you, and it's so easy to get caught up in the minutia of books and everything checking in box. They're supposed to be for quality improvement, but it's simply checking off boxes of tests that are sometimes expensive and sometimes could be done without, but there's so much emphasis on MIPS and points and RVs and the financial aspects of medicine. I think it's important to sit down with a patient, listen to them, talk to them and help them live with whatever it is they have to live with, because we don't cure people. Oftentimes we help them live as well as we can, so making sure we understand what's quality for that patient is critical. Yeah, it's easy to forget that. We have it here in the boxes. We have the chat.

Dr. Sweet:

You and your team are really embracing the whole human, not just in the exam room but outside the exam room. So full settings, okay. Like you said, do you have housing? Do you have support system? What are your role with meds, transportation, food, housing, the things that ought to be available to everyone that sometimes aren't so trying to make sure we help in as many arenas as we can. But I love, love what I do and I love being around young medical students and residents and hopefully I still have things they can learn. I guarantee that you do. I guarantee that you do. He certainly turned out well. I turned out all right. A lot of the guidance, thank God, and Al has encasing your beliefs that you have.

Dr. Sweet:

Health care is a right, not a privilege, needs to be affordable. We need to look at the whole human. How have you kept that at the front and center of your practice of medicine, of living life? For the last 40 plus years? I've seen the positive results of it. I've seen people thrive and do well and have families be able to take care. I've got still two or three young men who were hemophiliacs. We got this disease when they were four or five, was from infusions. One the other day over 40 and has his own kids and is a standard family man. That wouldn't have been considered possible, but we managed to get him through the bad old days and now he's one pill a day and doing well. You see positive results like that. It's not hard to know. You need to continue the fight. Make sure that the Ryan White Care Act gets refunded, that we continue to spend the money we need to take care of all patients, hopefully trying to get international help reinstituted because we've helped as the US. We've helped a lot of poor nations really control their HIV and that's going to go away if we take away their funding. So there's still a lot of advocacy that's needed, probably now more than ever, certainly now more than the last few years.

Dr. Sweet:

And if the listeners wanted to donate to the Sweet Emergency, that's possible. It goes into the community, it stays in the community and it truly impacts families, patients. It's a 501c3. The check to the Sweden Emergency Fund is tax deductible. You get a receipt that says what you sent it for and we're very diligent about making sure we use it in the best and most appropriate way Use it for those things that are most critical, like medication In transportation. We're a rural state and people live far away sometimes from medical care, so they need help getting to and from places and we spend a lot of time and energy on that as well. But a check to Sweet Emergency Fund is always very much appreciated and will be credited to you, and it's tax deductible, like all 501c3s.

Dr. Sweet:

Yes, I can't emphasize enough. Just, it goes to the community, the statement community, it's not research dollars we don't have the size of a system to be researched but it's care dollars. It's what it takes for people to have the best quality of life they can have living with a chronic illness. Yes, and if it weren't for programs like these, many patients wouldn't have the access to care that they need or the medications. Again, like you said, one ill once a day. But they're still exposed, but very tolerable. You just get it to the patient.

Dr. Sweet:

Dr Sweet, I really appreciate your time, I appreciate your listening, thank you, and sometimes I feel like I'm given more credit than I should be. But I've worked hard and I still have a vision that I think I've always had If you need care, we'll help you get it as best we can, knowing the constraints of the system. But we'll work on the system if we have to. But the team is only as strong as its leader and if you continue to have that vision and you carry that forward every day, I hope so. That's my goal. Thanks for tuning in to another episode from the Worthy Physician Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who'd love it too. Don't forget to follow us on YouTube, linkedin, instagram for more updates and insights. Until next time, keep inspiring, learning, growing and living your best life.